India announces $0.5 million scholarship for students from Indo-Pacific region

India has announced a new initiative to award fifty Quad scholarships, worth $500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific region.

The scholarships will enable students to pursue a four-year undergraduate engineering program at a government-funded technical institution in India, said the Wilmington Declaration released after the fourth in-person Quad Summit.

Hosted by President Joe Biden, the Quad leaders’ summit was held Saturday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. It was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“India is pleased to announce a new initiative to award fifty Quad Scholarships, worth $500,000, to students from the Indo-Pacific region to pursue a 4-year undergraduate engineering programme at a technical institution funded by the Government of India,” the statement read.

According to the statement, the Quad is committed to strengthening deep and enduring ties between our peoples and among our partners. Through the Quad Fellowship program, we are building a network of the next generation of science, technology and policy leaders.

The Quad governments also welcomed the second cohort of Quad Scholars through the Institute of International Education, which leads the implementation of the Quad Scholarship Programme. Students from ASEAN countries will also be included for the first time, he added.

The Japanese government supports the program to enable Quad scholars to study in Japan. The Quad welcomes the generous support of private sector partners for the next cohort of scholars, including Google, the Pratt Foundation and Western Digital, the statement said.

This year’s Quad leaders’ summit was originally scheduled to be held in India, but President Biden was keen to hold the event in his hometown.

In 2017, the United States, Japan, India and Australia gave shape to the long-awaited proposal to create the “Quad,” or quadrilateral coalition, to counter China’s aggressive behavior in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is a group of four countries that advocates for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. China says the group aims to contain its rise.

This year’s summit is a farewell event for U.S. President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida before they leave office.

On space, Quad leaders “recognize the essential contribution of space-related applications and technologies in the Indo-Pacific.”
“Our four countries intend to continue providing Earth observation data and other space-related applications to help Indo-Pacific nations strengthen climate early warning systems and better manage the impacts of extreme weather events,” the statement said.

Further, India’s establishment of a space-based web portal for Mauritius, to support the concept of open science for space-based monitoring of extreme weather events and climate impact, was welcomed by the Quad leaders, the statement said.